Barnes writes off Arsenal John Barnes

LONDON. — John Barnes has told Arsenal fans to forget about European football for another season. The former Liverpool and England winger predicted the Gunners will finish ‘’between sixth and eighth’’ this year.

Arsenal have finished eighth for the past two seasons and made a dismal start to the current campaign, suffering three successive defeats to Brentford, Chelsea and Manchester City without scoring a goal.

Mikel Arteta’s side picked up their first league win last Saturday – beating Norwich City 1-0 at the Emirates Stadium – but Arsenal are still just 16th in the table and already find themselves seven points adrift of the top-four places.

Asked about Arsenal’s prospects this season and if they could fall short of European football yet again, Barnes told BonusCodeBets: ‘’Of course they can finish outside the European places because they did last year and they haven’t started particularly well.

‘’It was a big result against Norwich City because as much as they should be beating Norwich, having lost their first three games, their confidence was low.

‘’Hopefully that can kick-start their season because they’re a good side and they have good young players.

‘’I’d like to see Emile Smith-Rowe and Bukayo Saka be more prominent this season as you don’t want your young English players playing in a struggling side because their confidence may suffer.

‘’Arsenal won’t break into the top four. They should feel that they can finish between sixth and eighth, but it depends on their confidence over the next few weeks and the results they pick up.’’

Arteta appeared to be fighting to save his job after Arsenal’s poor start to the season but the victory over Norwich has given the former Gunners midfielder some breathing space.

Ex-striker Chris Sutton believes Arsenal need to stick by Arteta despite their struggles, especially given the manager oversaw a spending spree of almost £150m earlier in the summer.

‘’I think Arteta needed that win but there are a lot of Arsenal fans out there who are saying it was only Norwich, it was only 1-0,’’ Sutton said on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Monday Night Club.

‘’They’ve spent big money, they’ve spent a lot of money, £150m.’’ — Metro.

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